The Woman in Black

Beginning the novel in Kipps’s old age, Hill positions her novel alongside traditional gothic literature, such as Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, as both of these novels begin with characters reflecting on the past and planning to tell a haunting story, introducing the theme of The Consequences of Holding Onto Pain and the Past. Hill further establishes her place in the gothic genre through employing gloomy weather, such as the image of a “chilling rain and a mist” that spreads across the landscape outside of Monk’s Piece (4). The use of weather, specifically the images of cold rains and fog (See: Symbols & Motifs), not only foreshadows Kipps’s eventual experience with the woman in black, but also creates a melancholy and isolating environment that the gothic genre relies on heavily. Furthermore, the weather’s ability to affect Kipps’s “spirit” illustrates just how much his direct environment can dictate his internal self. Overall, the first chapter aims to foreshadow the eventual haunting in the story, while also developing Kipps as a character before and after his experience at Eel Marsh House.

When Kipps starts recounting his story, he begins by depicting himself as a young man on a foggy London afternoon, which implies a foreboding tone. However, Kipps, aware of the setting he illustrates, distinctly says, “[it] would be easy to look back and to believe that all that day I had a sense of foreboding about my journey to come,” but he insists that he did not feel any “uneasiness or apprehension” (21). The description of Eel Marsh House and Mrs. Drablow continues to perpetuate the gothic setting of the novel as well. Mr. Bentley portrays Mrs. Drablow as being widowed young and without any close family, creating a mysteriousness about her:

The business was beginning to sound like something from a Victorian novel, with a reclusive old woman having hidden a lot of ancient documents somewhere in the depths of her cluttered house. I was scarcely taking Mr. Bentley seriously (27).

Here, Hill specifically uses traditional gothic tropes, such as an isolated estate and its reclusive owner, creating an eerie mood and setting up the plot for the future haunting. Kipps’s recap of Mrs. Drablow implies an easy dismissal of the impending fear he will experience. Although he does not know this at the time, Hill has set the novel up to immediately reveal the negative and horrific experience awaiting Kipps.

This eeriness continues to present itself during Kipps’s train ride, which becomes increasingly more uncomfortable as he is surrounded by others and then has to switch trains. During the last part of his trip, fog continues to present itself, now with cold air “blowing in gusts” (30). The fog thickens the closer Kipps gets to Eel Marsh House.

Mr. Daily’s reaction to seeing “Drablow” written on an envelope reinforces Mr. Bentley’s fiction-like description of Mrs. Drablow. However, up until now, Kipps has felt at ease on his business trip, but Mr. Daily’s reluctance to speak much on the deceased woman begins to produce apprehension in him. The farther the train is from London, the more Kipps begins to feel “an unpleasant sensation of being isolated far from any human dwelling” (33). The mysteriousness surrounding Mrs. Drablow, with the eerie weather gathering outside, foreshadows the rest of the novel. The isolated setting already affects Kipps before he even gets to Crythin Gifford, implying his discomfort will only increase.